It is often very important for consumers to determine the total cost associated with the purchase of a product and/or service as accurately as possible. This is true for both budgeting purposes, such as when saving for a given product and/or service, or to determine if a given product and/or service can be immediately purchased with existing funds. However, for many products and services, determining the actual likely total cost of a product and/or service is quite difficult.
For instance, a readily recognizable multi-component purchase, such as a vacation, wedding, or a home remodel, often has hidden costs that are not anticipated, or budgeted for, by the consumer.
As a specific example, when planning a vacation, a consumer can probably quite accurately determine the cost of travel, i.e., the cost of plane or boat tickets, or even gasoline. In addition the consumer can probably fairly accurately determine lodging costs, although many forget to budget for bell service, valet service, and other gratuities. In addition, a consumer can probably do a fair job of estimating food costs. However, here again, consumers often forget to budget for gratuities and other costs associated with dinning, such as drinks. However, absent prior experience, an average consumer may not consider, or even be aware of, other “hidden” costs associated with a vacation, particularly a vacation to another country and/or a vacation to a destination the consumer has never been to before. Some examples of hidden costs include, but are not limited to, in this specific example: the cost of any vaccinations and/or passport fees; bell person and other service related gratuities; parking; local transportation costs, such as taxi and bus fees; professional guide fees; costs associated with supplementary activities such as parasailing, scuba diving, boat rental, fishing tackle, bicycles, sight seeing tours, etc.; and/or any other unanticipated costs that a consumer may not be able to foresee, absent previous experience with the same vacation destination.
In addition to readily recognizable multi-component purchases, it is often the case that what appears to be single component purchase is, in reality, a multi-component purchase with one or more hidden costs. For example, purchase of HDTVs or computing systems may appear to be a single cost, i.e., the cost of the HDTV or computing system itself. However, the consumer often discovers, and often after the initial purchase of the product, that in order for the product to function optimally, or in some cases at all, other components must also be purchased.
As a specific example of a seemingly single component purchase that is, in reality, often a multi-component purchase, a consumer may budget for, and purchase, a big screen HDTV. However, when purchasing the HDTV, the consumer discovers that the HDTV requires a special stand or wall mounting system. In addition, the consumer may discover that in order to view HD signals, a special HDMI cable is required, but is not included with the HDTV. In addition, the consumer may discover that in order to receive HD programming, his or her cable company charges an additional premium fee. In addition, the consumer may also discover that his or her DVD player is not an HDDVD player and therefore does not provide the full “HDTV experience” for the consumer. Finally, the consumer may find that his or her DVDs are not HDDVDs and, as a result, part of his or her DVD collection must be re-purchased in the new HDDVD format in order to provide the consumer the full “HDTV experience”. Consequently, a consumer budgeting for just the cost of the HDTV is likely to break his or her budget very quickly.
As a result of the situations described above, it is currently quite difficult to determine the actual total cost associated with many purchases of products and/or services. Consequently, many consumers are faced with unexpected costs associated with a given purchase, and many carefully prepared budgets are negated by these unexpected costs. This can cause significant consumer stress and all but nullify the consumer's joy and satisfaction with the purchase and/or the service and/or product itself.